Descriptions

Observations of wind speed and direction, air and sea temperature,
and solar radiation were obtained from an array of buoys in
JASIN. The observations were analyzed to show spatial and temporal
variability. Spectra of wind speed and air and sea temperature were
computed to illustrate the distribution of variance over periods
ranging from 3.5 minutes to 40 days. When plotted on log-log graphs
the spectral estimates generally decrease with increasing frequency
with slopes between -3/2 and -2. Spectra of air and sea temperature
have a peak at the diurnal frequency. When plotted in variance-preserving
form, the spectrum of wind speed is consistent with a spectral
gap and is qualitatively similar to other observations of low
frequency spectra. On the basis of a cross-correlation analysis, it
appears that mesoscale eddies propagated with the mean wind speed
except during frontal passages. Based on the cross-correlation
between wind speed and air temperature, there is evidence of horizontal
roll vortices or organized convection.